Indianapolis 500 sees signs of revival at 100

MOTOR SPORTS

Dave Caldwell, New York Times

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, May 28, 2011

Tony Kanaan, the gregarious driver from Brazil, began hearing the stories from the old-timers and hangers-on not long after he arrived for his first Indianapolis 500 nine years ago. There was one common thread: The Indy 500 used to be a lot better.

Sometimes, particularly when wide patches of the enormous gray grandstands were noticeably empty three years ago, Kanaan wondered if he would ever feel the excitement the way that the veterans had described it.

But this year, as the race celebrates its 100th anniversary, Kanaan and other longtime participants in the event have seen signs of a revival. Kanaan said it took longer for him to get in and out of the racetrack. Forty-one cars were entered to qualify for the 33-car field, the most since 2002. Kanaan said he was noticed at local restaurants by many people, not just one diner.

"I didn't become more famous because I started doing backflips or I'm doing a TV show," said Kanaan, who will drive in his 10th Indy 500 today.

Ticket sales for the race are up by 10 percent over a year ago, and retail sales are up by nearly 30 percent, Jeff Belskus, the president and chief executive of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, said.

Photo: Michael Conroy, AP

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The IndyCar drivers who qualified on the front row for the Indianapolis 500 auto race, pole sitter Alex Tagliani, front, of Canada, Scott Dixon, center, of New Zealand, and Oriol Servia, of Spain, pose on the start/finish line at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 22, 2011. less

The IndyCar drivers who qualified on the front row for the Indianapolis 500 auto race, pole sitter Alex Tagliani, front, of Canada, Scott Dixon, center, of New Zealand, and Oriol Servia, of Spain, pose on the ... more

Photo: Michael Conroy, AP

Indianapolis 500 sees signs of revival at 100

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Some of the extra business can be attributed to the 100th anniversary of Ray Harroun winning the first race on May 30, 1911 (he needed 6 hours, 42 minutes to rumble 500 miles in his Marmon Wasp), but not all of it.

The Indianapolis 500 has been battling sliding television ratings. A record-low number of viewers, some 4.1 million, watched the 2010 race nationally, a drop from the 4.4 million who watched the race in 2009. An estimated 9.7 million watched the Indy 500 in 2005, when Danica Patrick became the first woman to lead the race.

This year's field has no clear favorite and greater parity than in years past. All but one of the past 10 races at Indianapolis have been won by cars owned by Roger Penske, Michael Andretti or Chip Ganassi. Of the top 15 cars to qualify for the race this year, only three are owned by Penske, Andretti or Ganassi. There are five race teams represented in the top six on the grid, including two cars owned by Sam Schmidt, the former driver who was paralyzed in a 2000 racing accident.

"I'm in the trenches, and it's a whole new way that people are talking about the race," said Mario Andretti, who won the race in 1969 and whose grandson Marco is in today's race. "I think people who have stayed away for several years are coming back. The buzz gets to them."

Andretti laughed, as if this development was improbable. Speedway officials are hoping to extend the buzz by stuffing the calendar with family-friendly activities and offering free tickets to children 12 and under if accompanied by a paying adult.

Since the NASCAR boom and a bitter dispute between open-wheel racing factions in the mid-1990s, there is a perception that a generation of fans was lost. So officials are trying to recruit a new one.

Belskus said the Indy 500 is not as popular as 20 years ago, when it was a hot ticket. "This tough economy hit us pretty hard," Belskus said. "We recognize that, for customers, this is discretionary spending."

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